Julian Alaphilippe ruled out of Tour de France after surgery for knee injury

Home favourite Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) has been ruled out of the Tour de France after undergoing surgery on a knee injury.

After wearing the yellow jersey at Paris-Nice, the 24-year-old Frenchman had already been forced to miss the Ardennes Classics with a knee injury which he sustained at the Tour of the Basque Country, and now faces a much longer lay-off than had initially been expected.